Yemeni planning minister meets with IFC’s official

Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Mohamed al-Sa’adi has met at the headquarters of the World Bank with Vice-President of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for Europe, Middle East & North Africa.In the meeting held on the sidelines of the conferences of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank being held during (April 15 -210 ,the IFC’s official noted that the region of Middle East and North Africa is a strategic prior for the IFC, expressing the readiness of the Corporation to burden risks in order to support the projects in Yemen.He pointed out that the IFC is focusing at the present time on the microfinance programs , as well as supporting the small and medium-sized enterprises in Yemen.The meeting touched on intensifying the coordination between the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation and the IFC in order to speed up the preparation and approval of the draft law of partnership between the public and private sectors (PPP).For his part, al-Sa’adi pointed to a number of issues related to the bilateral cooperation between Yemen and the IFC, noting to the importance of activating the role and contribution of the Corporation in supporting the Yemeni government’s efforts aiming to face the challenges of the transitional phase.On another hand, the Minister of Planning discussed with Head of the Foreign Agricultural Services at the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington a number of issues relating to the bilateral cooperation between Yemen and the Department and ways of boosting them to serve the common goals.The two sides reviewed the underway projects in the agricultural sector.For her part, the U.S. official renewed the readiness of the Department to continue to provide all aspects of support for Yemen in line with the priorities of the needs of Yemen in the areas of agriculture and food.Furthermore, the two sides discussed the possibility of the involvement of the Yemeni private sector and banks in the credit guarantee programs for agricultural export in the United States (ECGP).